Beansprouts

These are the sprouts of the green mung bean: they contribute a crisp texture and their own barely discernible flavour to any dish. Fresh beansprouts are readily available. Always use fresh sprouts, and never the soggy tinned version. They will keep for several days when loosely wrapped in kitchen paper inside a plastic bag in the vegetable crisper of a refrigerator.

The larger, yellow soya beansprouts may be substituted, but avoid alfalfa, wheat and rye sprouts: they just don’t do the job.